Home Affairs Accused Of Undermining Goal For United Africa

Two of the main opposition parties have criticised Home Affairs Department for its handling of refugees and asylum seekers.

Minister Aaron Motsoaledi delivered his speech in support of his department’s R8.3 billion budget in Parliament on Wednesday.

The EFF’s Vuyani Pambo accused the department’s policies related to foreign nationals as being anti-African.

“The Department of Home Affairs is not Afrocentric and often times actively undermines the goal for a united, borderless Africa and this is evident in the decline of asylum seekers who have been processed between the years 2009 and 2019.”

DA MP Harold McGluwa said Motsoaledi needed to look at fixing the systemic challenges within the department to reduce long lines and other administrative problems.

“The problem is a systemic problem. The problem is Sita… Sita must come to the party and they must assist us as far as those computers are concerned.”

BIRTH CERTIFICATES

Motsoaledi said that by March 2021 the majority of healthcare facilities in the country will be able to issue birth certificates as soon as a baby was born.

Of the 1,435 facilities that can deliver babies, only 391 of these places issue birth certificates after a baby is born.

During his budget vote speech on Wednesday, Motsoaledi told MPs that the department was set on changing this.

“By March 2021, we’ll have finished connecting 251 health facilities which are responsible for 84% of all births in our country. And by 2023, we’ll have completed all 1,435 of them.”

He has urged new parents not to leave these facilities without a printed birth certificate.

“When this is done, we’ll call upon parents, Home Affairs officials, hospital authorities and you as leaders and other leaders in society never to allow anyone in South Africa to leave a hospital without a printed and authentic birth certificate.”